Second Life

Things about SL

#SL Mesh Group Update Week 37

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Most of the work Lindens are doing in regard to mesh just now is to stabilize the viewer and servers, mesh problem fixing and performance improvements. Today they went through answering questions posted to the meeting agenda, a typical meeting with some interesting items.

Mesh 11-09-12

Prim Equivalence

By now you probably know Prim Equivalence (PE) is a complex way of representing how mesh uses up render resources. It is confusing, especially if one does not read how it is supposed to work in the wiki. Most people don’t bother to read the wiki. After finding they can’t figure it out, they complain in the forum and blame the Lindens for a dumb idea that is broken. Well… if one make an attempt, it is not too hard to understand.

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#SL Scripting Update Week 37

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Today was a discussion day in the group. Kelly had no news. A couple of interesting things came up.

llCastRay()

Many people are waiting for this feature to come to the main grid. Several things have delayed its arrival. It is now up in the ADITI grid in DRTSIM-92. The code running there is the next server maintenance project. It should move to a Release Channel this week. DRTSIM-92 has SVC-34 fix in it and llCastRay().

SVC-34 is the bug that lets people stop vehicles. And SCR-53 – llSensorRepeat not triggering no_sensor unless a sensor event handler is present. Also llGetMassMKS() is included. (MKS = Meter, Kilogram, Seconds)

The current release channel with DRTSIM-91 should roll to the main grid. It has the fixes for llSetMemoryLimit and PRIM_LINK_TARGET.

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Firestorm & Dolphin Release Fixes

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Both Firestorm and Dolphin have released fixes for some problems in their recent releases.

See Firestorm Mesh Beta – optional update – the update is for estate managers and those using the Metaharper skin. A performance fix is included for those that find FPS dropping when they have several chat groups open.

Dolphin Viewer 3 has a teleport problem. It sends the request for tp twice. That is fixed. A user inface something is fixed. Chat toasts are wider.

 

Can’t Login Second Life

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There is a known problem with login going around. It is not the only login problem. However, the Firestorm-Phoenix team and Lance of Dolphin Viewer fame have provided suggestions for those using their viewers and described the problem. There are possible fixes, if your login problem is from the Viewer 3 Bug in mesh capable viewers, that’s my name for it…

A possible fix is to login with a pre-mesh capable viewer. Once your in, you can logoff and come back with a Viewer 3 version. This problem affects all viewers using SLViewer 3 code, which is all of the new Third Party Viewers with mesh render ability. I think the problem started to appear with version 2.8.something. Any viewer prior to 2.8 should be able to clear the problem.

Another suggested fix is to change your DNS service. When making a change most switch over to the Google public DNS. You can Google for instructions on how to do that on your system. A trick they do not tell you when changing your DNS service is to ping the services you are currently using and the Google services. Place the service with the fastest ping as your preferred first choice. Make the slower of Google or your current DNS the second choice. To make your system more robust use 3 or 4 DNS addresses.

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Charlar Linden Interview

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Yesterday (9/9) Kim(RL), who is Gianna Borgnine in SL, put up an audio recording of an interview with Charlar Linden. Most of us know him from the Mesh Project, at least I do. Charlar is a senior project manager at Linden Lab in charge of creators, those that make things in Second Life. The following is an index of the audio tape and my take on it.

The tape has problems and the volume is inconsistent, making it hard to listen to and understand. Charlar is, I guess, close to the mic so he can be understood.

Reed Steamroller and Draxtor Despres participate in the discussion. Unless you already know their voices, I have no idea who is who.

You’ll find the audio here: A Chat With Charlar on Metareality. There is kidding around that I have left out. Charlar seems nice enough and gives some candid answers.

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Dolphin Viewer 3 Version 3.0.3.20418 Review

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Another third party viewer (TPV) releases a mesh capable viewer. Dolphin 3 Viewer is the latest. See the announcement on the Dolphin Viewer blog.

The article lists the features now in Dolphin Viewer 3. Some are features that have been in the SLViewer 2 and 3 for a time. Some are Dolphin features not in the SLViewer. The current combination of features makes Dolphin Viewer 3 one of more feature rich power-user viewers.

BIG TIP for Blocked Login

I’ve seen a number of people complaining about not being able to login. This is a problem thought to be in the Linden Lab code for version 3 viewers, basically mesh capable viewers. Once one runs into the problem it seems to be very difficult to get around it and get logged in. This problem is not Dolphin Viewer problem. It is an SL problem.

Lance provides a work around for the problem. He suggests logging in with a non-mesh viewer. Once logged in, you can log out and come back with mesh enabled viewer. Why this works probably has something to do with the mesh up load enablement flags, but that is a guess on my part.

Mesh Render Capable

The Dolphin Viewer 3 will render mesh. It will not allow you to upload mesh. Uploading requires a special set of calculations handled by the Havok Physics Engine. A TPV developer must purchase a license from Havok to use the same software the Lab licensed from Havok and uses.

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